Salesforce stock plumbs depths not seen in almost three years as executive changes add up

Investors' enthusiasm for Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) remained low on Wednesday as the cloud-based business-software company's shares continued to slide and dropped to a point not touched in almost three years.

Salesforce (CRM) fell to as low as $130.02 a share--the stock's lowest point since slumping to $128.86 on March 19, 2020--and is now down by almost 50% this year.

A combination of factors has hit Salesforce (CRM) of late, including a fourth-quarter revenue outlook last week that suggested weak growth and a challenging year ahead in 2023.

But, just as concerning to Wall Street has been a spate of executive departures that have shaken up Salesforce's (CRM) management ranks.

Along with Salesforce's (CRM) earnings results and outlook, co-Chief Executive Bret Taylor said he would leave the company at the end of January. Then, just this week, Slack boss and co-founder Stewart Butterfield said he would leave the company that Salesforce (CRM) acquired in a $27B deal in 2021. Butterfield's departure announcement came on the heels of Tableau CEO Mark Nelson saying on December 2 that is leaving would leave the company.

Speaking at a UBS tech conference on Tuesday, Salesforce (CRM) Chief Financial Officer Amy Weaver stressed that even though "people love to try to connect the dots," the departures of Taylor and Butterfield, in particular, "are either completely unrelated events."